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Chapter 7 - A New Soldier

Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Turkey 2032 AD

The blazing sun beat down on the grass that surrounded the airport. Heat waves distorted views of old, emaciated buildings. Once a busy facility, it now sat nearly abandoned since the outbreak of what was now known as the Erklik Virus, named after the mythological Turkish god of death. Dark green weeds grew on the runways and vines crept up the sides of buildings. A pack of wild dogs chased a rogue that had stolen their food. Every runway sat empty.

Except one.

Desmond Black stepped out of the doorway to the jet that had flown him from Virginia all the way here to Turkey, stopping in Berlin to refuel. He stretched to his full height of six-foot-four and ran his hand through his now short hair. His other hand held a black leather briefcase that somehow matched his midnight blue suit with a blood red tie. He took long, purposeful strides down the ramp as two men in black suits and sunglasses walked to meet him.

As he stepped down to the tarmac, three dozen soldiers followed suit and joined him. This was part of the new strike team sent to the source of the virus in hopes of taking it out. This had already been tried four times in the last ten years, and had failed all four times, but new intel was being brought in all the time, so new strikes were constantly prepared and put into action.

Des finally reached the suits and reached out to shake their hands.

"Desmond Black, sir," he said confidently with a firm grip. "Doesn't it get hot in those suits?"

"Mr. Black, I am Agent Carter," said one, and gestured to the other. "This is Agent Smith. As you can probably guess, those are not our real names, but for obvious reasons we must hold some information rather discreetly." A pause. "And yes, it does get hot," his partner added with a small grin that Des returned.

Des nodded and followed the men as they started walking towards a group of ten large black Chevrolet Suburbans. The other soldiers joined them, also carrying their suitcases and bags. Des looked at their large bags and smiled as he compared it to his lone briefcase. He only needed the contents of this one small piece of luggage.

He opened the rear door of one of the vehicles and climbed inside. Agent Carter reached to take his bag to put it in the back, but he pulled it in with him.

"This never leaves my person," he said with a scowl. "Ever."

Desmond had changed a lot over the past thirteen years. His father had never returned from his final trip, but it was because of his father that he was chosen to begin training for one of the strike teams. He followed his father's example, who had been by far the top of every training course he had taken, and almost immediately rose to a high-ranking position. Occasional training from Ian before the collapse, natural skill, and even a bit of luck pushed him farther until he was training soldiers himself.

Before the collapse, he had barely weighed 160 pounds. Since then, he had added over 50 pounds of pure muscle. His hair, which had gone blonde ever since he stopped dying it black, stayed in a buzz cut at all times; he couldn't afford to have his hair long enough to fall in his eyes anymore.

Once all of the soldiers were loaded into the vehicles, the convoy began its movement. In the lead car, Agent Smith looked back at Des. "The exact details of your mission will be explained at the base. Even we don't know anything more than that you're infiltrating the source site."

The convoy reached the end of the old grass surrounding the airport and followed the old highway through the desert, hot sand kicking up in their wake as they drove towards the nearest base.